How To Re-Discover Your Motivation

What companies?

So the moral of the article is "If you want to be motivated, do it yourself"

"But how do you motivate yourself when you're not motivated? That's like trying to jump-start a car by hooking the dead battery to itself."

Seriously, if the person could self-motivate, s/he would never be 'stuck' in an unmotivated state to begin with.

If you're not motivated... you have to address it at its source.

It usually starts with a boss like this.

actually worked with a salesman that talked like this.

I know what I want to say here, but I will be diplomatic and leave it unsaid.

This post is left intentionally blank.

Del

You should post that anonymously as another bonkers perpetual generator motor thread... some idiot will buy into it

Del

"FIND THE VALUE IN THE THINGS YOU HATE." That's like throwing up. "once it's done, you will have taken a step toward solving a problem."

I've done the motivational things, like

Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course. Two days in wine country, good food, wine................................

Other one day motivational seminars closer to home. Time management, how to be an effective leader, etc.

I was motivated as hell while I was doing them. Did I get any long term benefits? Nothing that I can remember.

Oyez, oyez! Amen, brother.

Semper Fi.

I'm pleased to give you your first official GA in the forum.

Army vet here, details may differ, but the basic process is the same.

And thank you for serving.

Yesterday, my company had a quarterly all-hands meeting; 300 or so people gathered in a hangar to hear the president present a state of the company message.

About 15 minutes of the hour was devoted to company values. A large portion of that time was in regards to employees dedicating themselves to be the best employees possible and bring value to the company.

This coming about two weeks after the company announced that, due to a downturn in revenue, annual raises this year are canceled.

Oh, the irony!!

I've always found hunger to be a good motivator....

Agreed,

Fear also......

and sometimes that's all you got.

Ask not what your company can do for you, ask what you can do for your company.

As the title of the article says, "How To Re-Discver Your Motivation". It isn't the job of the company we work for to motivate us. That is our job. If we can't figure out why we are where we are, doing the things we're doing, that is our responsibility and maybe we need to change where we work in order to feel a sense of purpose or mission. Most people aren't doing what they love or are passionate about and therefore need to be "motivated" to perform.

Of course there are things companies can do that will either encourage or discourage staff morale and performance but like someone in an earlier Posting made, "motivation in internal, not external". When the motivation is external the results will be short-lived. Internal, personal motivation has much long lasting impact. It's like raising my kids, I can force compliance through punishment, which there is a place for that on occasion, but if I want long lasting change I will coach the heart.

We could all use a little motivation occasionally.

But having some talking head in a suit telling you how to motivate yourself with buzz words would hardly help any engineer do his job better or design a better product.

Motivational speakers and the meetings they hold are just like going to church. A good speaker can fill you with the holy spirit and make you want to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But, then you walk back out into the light of day and remember that cost analysis you have to do for the boss. The one you've already done twice, knowing all the time it won't be what he wanted and you'll have to keep trying to hit that moving target he puts up.

Or, this is what I face today. My NPO derives 90% of it's money from a municipality. We had a major shake-up in city government last year and now we have "keepers", or contacts that have to be stroked.

Last year, if I needed to have new/different parking lot or street regulatory signs, I'd e-mail the city traffic department and the signs would be changed/removed/installed per my request. The city changed its budgeting practices and now that same request has gone to no less that six different people, most of whom don't have a clue what I'm doing. But, they don't mind wasting my, and their, time by asking me pointless questions about meaningless issues.

So, do I give a flying leap if the damn signs get changed/corrected/fixed? Nope, not any more.

It doesn't matter that the parking enforcement people can't do their jobs properly, or that shoppers and business owners may be losing parking slots to people who park there all day and go to work.

All these bureaucrats will have justified their jobs and that's what's important.

I'm really motivated.

"But having some talking head in a suit telling you how to motivate yourself with buzz words would hardly help any engineer do his job better or design a better product." Agree 100%

I've never had much luck teaching someone to care.

I can nurture someone, teach them tricks to making a better finished product, provide insights that 30 odd years perfecting my craft in my chosen trade have given me...

But if they truly don't care, then all of that will have been been a mutual waste. It's sad, really.

all true, but,... you left out mentor.....

Yes, thank you.

Ya know, a few of the people that I have taken under my wing (personal projects, if you will) seemed to feel it was more like indentured servitude than being apprenticed or mentored.

So, the title of this blog, "How To Re-Discover Your Motivation", would not be applicable to them.

A generation of instant gratification maybe???.

yes, it should read

"How To Re-Discover Your Motivation",

Alright who put all the oil on this squeaking wheel...? Nice example of 'no can do' attitude....lol

Oh, it'll still get done. It's just that the process has become more important than the outcome.

I was at a 'motivational' meeting years ago attended by about 300 engineers. At one point the VP of Engineering strutted around the stage thumping his chest proclaiming that he didn't believe in merit raises and that you'd better do your job "or else." Wonderful speech. Then he asked if there were any questions. A guy in the back raised his hand.

"So, Ted, how many merit raises have you turned down?"

Touché

Hi Lyn, yes!

Please copy me in on all the E-mails and I'll send you the artwork for the surface mount version of our popular product that I first did 5 years ago, it wasn't implemented and I've just finished doing it again.. put out to quote a month ago and yesterday I was asked for some changes.

Once I've done that I can go back to making endless customer requested software changes which will make a product less reliable, and more user hostile and will create various different versions to complicate inventory and maximise the chance of the wrong customer getting right version or vice versa.

That's why I make bows, no paperwork, sometimes a customer who can either take it leave it... no skin off my nose either way.
Have a beer!

Del

Del,

Will do!

I've also put in an order for the latest revision of the LynDoor™Industries Random Cost and Benefit Analysis (RCaBA) generator with the double redundant triple duplication axillary module, municipal jargon version, to cope with the numerous, onerous, obnoxious, inane information requests.

I estimate that will add about two additional weeks to the approval cycle time and have modified my work schedule accordingly. So, instead of the 4-6 weeks the process took in FY2013-2014, we can expect the same result to consume about three to five times as many calender days this fiscal year.

But, the fine citizens of Mesa can rest assured that no money will be wasted on my lack of attention to detail.

Assuming that the Vogons don't destroy Earth while completing their hyperspatial express route in the meantime.

Which will make the status of any and all highway trust funds and taxing schemes moot.

Thanks Doorman. Semper Fi.

William Shakespeare said, "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." That isn't exactly correct because it doesn't apply to moral issues, but from the standpoint of how we act, react and respond in the environments in which we work it is true.

Other people do or say things that impact us but it is our response that determines whether those people or things will motivate or demotivate us. Any longlasting motivation is intrinsic. We are responsible for that, not someone else. If we are just being "motivated" by what happens or is said around us, we are pretty easily knocked off track. A Navy SEAL in BUDS training is motivated internal factors, regardless of what is being done to him or said to him by others. He is only successful in the completion of that phase of SEAL training because of physical strength and endurance for sure, but most importantly, by internal strength mentally

Then again, there's a bit of a difference in BUDS training for SEALS (since SEALS are already the 'green berets' of the Navy, I'm assuming that BUDS is a form of Special High-Intensity Training for the best of the best of the best) and the day to day job for a company that (like most in the civilian world) either deliberately or through mismanagement work to DEmotivate the employees.

Just completing the SEAL training alone (just as in completing the Special Forces training in any branch) indicates that that soldier/sailor/etc is already a good 'self-motivator.' For the day-to-day working stiff, who sees his company providing little beyond a paycheck, self-motivation is a more daunting challenge, as the only reward for 'giving 110%' is the boss recalibrating your performance ratings so 110% is the new 100% and the old 100% is 'not working up to expectations.'

There was an old piece of wisdom I heard a while ago, "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." That bit of wisdom works if you have no concerns for the level of income you'll be drawing in, but once you have a mortgage, and people depending on you for support, then what one wants to do for a living and what one HAS to do for a living become two separate things, especially if the job market for one's skills is rather small, as Engineering has become with all the H1 visas and the exporting of engineering jobs to overseas markets.

Ever listen to that song 'Take This Job and Shove It,' and I mean really listen to the verses, not just the chorus? The song taken as a whole is quite different from the loud, cheerful refrain, and I'd say it sums up the position of a majority of all people working for a paycheck these days.

For the forum members who don't believe in the 'job opportunity shortage' for Engineers (yes, both of them) I came across something just now from an e-mail newsletter to back up my statement:

http://machinedesign.com/blog/another-debunking-us-engineering-shortage

Hard to stay optimistic and motivated when there were more STEM immigrants brought in than there were STEM jobs created. "Job mobility? What's that?"

I found this statement in the article particularly amusing, "When formulating policy, elected representatives need to consider the actual conditions".

Yea, right!

In case I forgot earlier (since you seem to be speaking from experience about the BUDS training), thank you for serving.

I like your observations... I'll throw you a GA for them!

"Lean to value what you hate." That's a level of doublethink only a few high-level ministers could achieve in Orwell's 1984. And it requires such high levels of mental compartmenilization and self-deception, one is good for little else than corrupt politcs after that."

This one is bound to get more comments... well done!

HA! I've got it everyone...

Now sit up straight and listen... stop fiddling with that other web page... you know who you are

I found motivational Nirvana this morning!

The toaster broke WHAAAAAAA!

That motivated me to go and buy a new one (having done the usual electrical checks).
Having bought a new one... that motivated me to find the fault with the old one (a straight wire spring that should activate the switch that latches on the hold down solenoid when the bread lever is pushed down.

An that motivated me to write this.

So there you are:-

TO GET MOTIVATED FIND A BROKEN TOASTER!

Now please E-mail $10 to KrisDel Motivational enterprizes ltd. Etherville

Del

(By reading this drivel motivational presentation you agree to further payments as an when we run short of nuts and tuna)

I'll bet Baba Ji has a spell for motivation.

Less painful than most 'motivational aids' one finds offered in the workplace.

And that includes the stage right before the frostbite leads to numbness.

I am not motivated to reply!

Can you help please?

The beatings will continue until morale improves...

There are some places where that sign would be wholeheartedly cheered.

But that's just one whip-length from being NSFW, so I'll stop here, outside the pain zone.